US Navy calls off search for chopper crew members in Red Sea

Updated
Tue 24 Sep 2013, 8:47 AM AEST

The United States Navy has called off a search for two crew members who remain missing after their helicopter crashed in the Red Sea, officers said on Monday.

The crash site had been "searched multiple times by various ships and aircraft" after the MH-60S Knighthawk went down on Sunday but more than 24 hours later, there was no sign of the two missing crew members, the military said in a statement.

"Navy officials have concluded that given the time elapsed since the incident, aircrew survivability was extremely unlikely," according to the US Fifth Fleet, which oversees naval forces across the Middle East from its headquarters in Bahrain.

The other three crew members from the helicopter were accounted for and in stable condition, officers said Sunday.

The Knighthawk chopper crashed after conducting a landing on the deck of the guided-missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence.

The warship is part of a strike group, led by the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier, which was deployed to the region in the run-up to possible US military action against Syria over its alleged use of chemical weapons.

The Nimitz and its escorts had recently completed a tour in the Gulf and were due to return to the United States before being ordered to the Red Sea.

The crash was not caused by any enemy fire and the incident was under investigation, the Navy said.